This article relly states what we acheived with this challenge. It was not sour grapes, it was about fixing problems for the future, that wasn't done after 2000.
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1447
1. The topic of election fraud has been forced into the corporate media. Reporters wanting to write about it now have a "hook." They can report on it now in the way they could have two months ago if Senator John Kerry hadn't crawled under his bed to hide. Sure, much of the media today treated the story as one of "political theater" and "grandstanding Democrats," but until now the story had not been there at all.
http://ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1398
Now the Democrats have the opportunity to explain why fighting for Democracy is the only decent thing to do, even when success seems unlikely.
2. We now have solid evidence that a political party can challenge a stolen election without causing national trauma of the sort Kerry tried to protect us from by conceding. Most Americans are not now in agony over the tensions felt on January 6th in Congress.
3. We have demonstrated that a grassroots movement of minorities and progressives can mobilize around an issue completely blacked out of the media and move US Senators to act. The reason Barbara Boxer stood tall today, while not even Paul Wellstone would do so four years ago, is that four years ago there was no massive grassroots lobbying effort. Nobody was holding "Boxer Rebellion" demonstrations at Boxer's offices four years ago. There were no hearings and bus rides, telephone and fax campaigns, nothing like what we've seen for the past two months. We also lacked the leadership that Congressman John Conyers has shown, but Conyers will be the first to say he couldn't have done this without a movement behind him. The rally Thursday morning across from the White House (report and photos here:
http://ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1445 )
was a celebration of success against the odds, of accomplishment in the face of scorn and ridicule with only justice and determination to keep people going. There will be momentum coming out of this for supporters of democracy all over this country.
4. A coalition has begun to form and to feel its power. Cliff Arnebeck of Alliance for Democracy and Common Cause Ohio told me Thursday morning that the way the Cleveland AFL-CIO worked with the white public interest crowd and the black civil rights folks on this issue is matched by the way the Ohio state AFL-CIO is working with these groups in opposition to a Republican proposal in Ohio to eliminate campaign finance limits. Labor, Arnebeck said, is one of the three key parts of a coalition that must be built nationally.
"Labor has to be viewed as a public interest organization," he said. "Every organization has its own selfish interests. But the labor union movement stands for democracy and not for benefiting a small elite, but for the vast majority - not for this CEO club. It's going to come together…This will revitalize all three movements."
5. The Democratic Party has put its toes into the water of actual opposition to the Republicans. Today ended any remaining credibility for another presidential nomination for Kerry -- and probably for any other senators who did not voice their support for Barbara Boxer's challenge. Those who did not speak today will have to campaign against that record, as Kerry campaigned against his vote for Bush's war. The Democrats have begun to emerge as a second party in what has often seemed a one-party or duopolistic system. More power to them. It's up to us to keep this ball rolling by urging aggressive action on election reform and all other issues. The Democrats have started to copy Republican brashness. If they can cease copying Republican policy positions, there may be hope for them yet. Reid announced that he would introduce an election reform bill in a few days.